Mostly Dead? Or Slightly Alive?

I don't know about you guys, but Wednesday morning's reading made me think of that scene from The Princess Bride when Inigo takes Westley to Miracle Max to be revived. Max says "It just so happens that your friend here is only mostly dead," because apparently, there's a big difference between "mostly dead" and "all dead." The catch is that mostly dead is also "slightly alive," because of course, Westley isn't really dead at all.

Isn't that just like the lies that we tell ourselves? There is no mostly dead in the Kingdom - there is only all dead and slightly alive. When we think about death to self, it seems like it ought to be ok to be slightly alive as long as we're mostly dead, but the truth is that any amount of alive is still just plain old alive - Jesus doesn't see it as a sliding scale.

But the twist is that where any degree of life to self still qualifies us as "alive," any degree of life to Christ also qualifies us as wonderfully, gloriously Alive! Even when we feel like we're barely scraping along on our hands and knees, when we feel like we're so broken down that we're mostly dead, we find that He's pushing us along the whole way. And we discover a glorious depth of Life in giving our lives away fully.

It also makes me think of a the chorus from a song I love called "Only Love Remains":

Kill the liar, kill the thief in me

You know that I am tired of their cruelty

Breathe into my spirit, breathe into my veins

Until only Love remains.

Father, would I be a living sacrifice for You today, holy and pleasing. I want to be fully sacrificed in death to self, but fully Alive to You, for You, through You!